Mosiah 19:24 Textual Variants

Here Oliver Cowdery’s correction in 𝓟 of destroyed (spelled as destroid ) to slain was virtually immediate (the level of ink flow for the supralinear slain is unchanged). The Book of Mormon text frequently refers to slain people as being destroyed:

• Alma 25:2
  • but they took their armies and went over into the borders of the land of Zarahemla and fell upon the people which were in the land of Ammonihah and destroyed them

The verb destroy is, of course, more general than slay and can even be conjoined with slay:

• Helaman 4:20
  • the Nephites were in great fear lest they should be overpowered and trodden down and slain and destroyed

However, when referring specifically to killing women and children (as in Mosiah 19:24), the text prefers the verb slain:

• Mosiah 19:19
  • now they had sworn in their hearts that they would return to the land of Nephi and if their wives and their children were slain and also those that had tarried with them that they would seek revenge and also perish with them
• Alma 3:2
  • now many women and children had been slain with the sword and also many of their flocks and their herds and also many of their fields of grain were destroyed

Note that the first of these is found in this same chapter of Mosiah 19 and refers to the same event as in verse 24. Since the correction to slain in verse 24 appears to be virtually immediate, the critical text will accept it as the reading of the original manuscript.